Relia breathed deeply and looked at Josh — really looked at him.
Her eyes lingered on the softness of his babyish features, the kind that disarm a person without warning.
His tiny nose, the faint dimples resting at the corners of his mouth, the warm, penetrating eyes that looked nothing like a child's at all. Those eyes held history — the steady, ancient gaze of someone who had seen and survived more than ten kingdoms' worth of storms.
And that… that terrified her.
"Why don't you choose someone your age and enjoy your youth?" she whispered, her voice trembling on the edge of vulnerability. "You can live an uncomplicated, carefree life. Why would you tie yourself to someone like me? I'm thirty already… and even if you can reverse this—" Her breath hitched. "Won't the price be steep?"
The words left her mouth like a confession she'd been suppressing for days. Relia Amia felt her stomach tighten, her heart pushing painfully against her ribs as she admitted aloud the fear that had been gnawing at her soul.
Josh smiled — not mockingly, but slowly, gently, like he had expected this all along.
"Is that really your major concern?" he asked, tilting his head.
His calmness made her chest collapse inward. She looked away sharply, cheeks warming, pulse speeding like a runaway carriage. She didn't want him to leave her. She didn't want this conversation to end with him walking away. She hated how exposed she felt, how much power he unexpectedly held over her emotions.
She said "no" with her face — but her heart was clinging tightly, screaming yes.
Josh reached out and stroked her hair gently.
A simple gesture… yet it unleashed a soft wave of preternatural energy that tingled along her scalp, down her neck, and through her spine. Relia's breath caught. She had no idea what was happening to her body — only that she didn't want it to stop.
"If those are your concerns, then forget about them," Josh murmured. Then his eyes hardened just a little, showing a seriousness far beyond his small frame. "My question remains. Do you want me… or not?"
The world seemed to still.
Relia swallowed.
Her heart hammered loud enough she feared he'd hear it.
Her lips barely moved.
"I do…" she whispered, so faint it almost wasn't sound.
Josh's eyes sparkled.
I caught you, he thought, suppressing a smirk.
"Hm? For some reason I can't seem to hear you clearly…" he teased, leaning forward.
Her face burned.
"I said I do…!" she yelled — louder than she expected — and immediately regretted it as Josh burst into a boyish laugh and wrapped his arms around her head in a playful hug.
She groaned softly, leaning into him despite herself, letting her forehead rest against his shoulder. For a moment, everything felt… simple.
After a long moment she straightened up to her full height, holding Josh — who, in height, only reached the space just above her waist. The size difference should have made the moment ridiculous. Instead, it made everything more intimate, more surreal.
"Let's go," Josh said gently. "I need to find out what plans the king has. I've already annoyed him—he won't sit idly by." he hesitated. "Also, I need to find a girl…"
Josh paused, narrowing his eyes playfully as he studied her face, clearly waiting to see if jealousy would leak out.
Relia fought the urge to glare.
And she lost.
Just a little.
"Don't worry, you're my queen. This one is for business," he said with exaggerated seriousness.
Relia tried not to smile.
She failed.
"I can't believe I'm being made to feel guilty over the love affair of a five-year-old…" she muttered, just loud enough for him to hear.
Josh nudged her side with deliberate childish smugness.
She lifted her hands in surrender. "Alright, alright — I'm sorry. It was a joke."
They continued walking, a strange, warm tension simmering between them.
Meanwhile, hidden among the shadows, Naze tried — and failed — to stop his blind eyes from twitching uncontrollably.
He had witnessed every single second. Though blind, he could still register every single part of it like watching a movie.
If this continued, he was genuinely going to lose his mind.
From his hiding spot behind the stone pillar, Naze clutched his chest like an old man experiencing heartbreak for the first time.
His blind left eye twitched.
Then the other blind right eye twitched.
Then both twitched together in a rhythm that suggested a small demon was playing drums inside his skull.
He leaned forward, jaw dropped.
"What… what in the seven flaming heavens did I just witness?"
Relia — RELIA AMIA — the woman who once froze the blood of men by looking at them, was now shyly whispering "I do" like a blushing maiden in a summer romance play to a boy no less.
Naze slapped a hand over his mouth to keep from screaming.
Josh — a five-year-old terror with ancient eyes — was stroking her hair like some legendary lover from a forbidden novel.
Naze's soul ascended.
Then crashed back down.
He grabbed the pillar for support as Josh teased her again.
When she shouted, "I SAID I DO!" Naze's knees buckled.
He slid halfway down the pillar like a man whose internal organs just filed for divorce.
"BRO…" he mouthed silently.
"I'm too old to be witnessing this. My spirit cannot survive another occurence like this…"
Then Josh hugged her head.
Actually wrapped his little arms around her head with more confidence than most grown men had on their wedding day.
Naze slapped the ground lightly in disbelief like someone watching a football team score a goal against the gods.
"This boy is not normal," he whispered. "This is not normal. None of this is normal."
Although he couldn't see, his heightened senses more than made up for it, it was no different than having sight. The only difference was he couldn't use the eyes within the eyelids, everything else was in order.
He raised head again and trying to push forth his senses, but immediately regretted it. That was when he sensed it...
Relia was smiling — SMILING — in that soft, helpless way she never used on anyone except threatening kings right before destroying them.
Naze's mind broke.
He turned around, pressed his forehead against the pillar, and prayed.
"Dear ancestors… I beg you… smite me now. I don't want to witness this kind of unholy romance. My blood pressure wasn't built for this dimension."
He tried to stabilize his breathing.
Then he heard:
"You're my queen."
Naze's soul evaporated.
He grabbed a fistful of his hair, shaking like someone who just lost a bet he didn't even place.
"If I stay here any longer," he whispered, "I'll either die, explode, or write a romance novel at this point. I'm losing myself."
He leaned in once more — he couldn't help it — only to hear Relia mutter something sarcastic and Josh nudge her playfully.
That was the last straw.
Naze slapped both hands on his face, dragged them down dramatically, then whispered:
"NOPE. I'm done. End scene. Shut it down. This romance arc is too much for a blind man with heightened senses. I surrender."
He got up slowly — shakily — like an old monk who had seen too much enlightenment and wanted none of it.
As he shuffled away, muttering like a broken prophet, his final whispered words drifted down the hallway:
"If those two start kissing… I swear I will resign from reality."